September ii, 1891. 



SCIENCE. 



149 



Take, ag-ain, the whole line of manufacturiug trusts aud 

 similar organizations in this country, the Standard Oil mo- 

 nopoly, for example. Here is an excellent subject for na- 

 tional taxation. No State can reach it. It has practically 

 withdrawn itself from State control, and as we make no 

 attempt to control it by national means, it is practically un- 

 taxed. Now this is very foolish and unreasonable. What 

 shall be done about it ? No city or county or State can tax 

 it Shall we let it continue to go untaxed ? By no means. 

 We should tax it through the agency of the national govern- 

 ment, and take the proceeds for local purposes. 



We must no longer look upon the county government as 

 opposed to the township in matters of taxation, or the State 

 to the county, or the federal government to the State, but 

 upon all as a part of one aud the same system of government, 

 to be used by the people in the manner and to the extent to 

 which its interest may dictate. 



In a woi'd, then, the solution of the financial difficulty in 

 this country, as I l^ok at it, is simply this: Let us use each 

 part of the government, city, town, school district, county. 

 State, and nation, to administer those taxes which it can 

 most easily manage, and then divide the proceeds upon such 

 basis as experience may dictate to be the best. Briefly in- 

 dicated, and only in the most general way, the land tax 

 ought to be left to the ultimate unit — city, town, road, 

 school, poor district, etc. The State ought to levy an elabo- 

 rate system of corporation taxes upon such corporations as 

 it can efficiently reach; and, finally, the nation ought to 

 levy the indirect taxes, such as excise and customs duties, 

 and such other taxes as circumstances may show to be de- 

 sirable, such as taxes upon the great combinations of capital 

 which extend their operations over the whole countr}', and 

 possibly also upon incomes. We should take the proceeds 

 of such taxes beyond what may be necessary for an economi- 

 cal administration of federal affairs, and utilize them for 

 local purposes. The States should use the funds derived 

 from the taxes administered by itself, partly for the per- 

 formance of a larger range of functions, partly in assisting 

 in the performance of local functions, as in making roads, 

 etc., and partly in cistribution among local units for local 

 purposes, as schools, etc. 



I am all the surer that tliis is the proper solution, as it is 

 the one which modern nations situated somewhat like our 

 own have found it necessary to adopt. As said above, the 

 problems of modern taxation have come up in all nations in 

 a very similar form. Local taxation has assumed an impor- 

 tance hitherto unknown, and the relation of the farming class 

 to other classes in this matter has been a troublesome one. 

 England, France, and Germany, which in their economic 

 conditions most resemble our own country, have all found 

 it necessary to resort to some such plan as that here out- 

 lined. 



No amount of patching is going to help us in this matter. 

 No attempt to strengthen the hands of local tax assessors 

 or tax collectors is going to afford any permanent relief. 

 The more tax commissions we have which give such advice 

 as the late ones have given us, the more money will be 

 wasted, and the time will be the more delayed when a rea- 

 sonable system will take the place of the present antiquated 

 patch- work. 



Before closing, I should like to revert again to a point al- 

 ready mentioned, touch upon another phase of the question 

 which I regard as even more fundamental than that of taxa- 

 tion, important as is the latter, and that is, the whole eco- 

 nomical condition of the farmer as compared with the other 



classes in the community. I touched, at the beginning of 

 my address, upon the revolution which the modern system 

 of transportation had effected in the condition of the farmer; 

 how it has brought into competition with him not only the 

 farmer of the Mississippi Valley, but has planted a competi- 

 tor on the slopes of the Pacific, nay, even opened up Africa 

 and Australia as competing territories. The farmer was 

 formerly assured of a certain even though it were a small 

 market. His market is now large but very uncertain. 



The farmer feels the burden of taxation, in a word, largely 

 because his economic situation has become an unfavorable 

 one. The prices of agricultural products of the staple vari- 

 ety have gone down in the great European market upon 

 which we rely to dispose of our surplus products. It looks 

 very much as if they would never rise again, at least not for 

 a long time to come. The settlement of Australia, of South 

 America, and of Africa will more than keep pace with the 

 wants of the world for breadstuffs; and until Russia, Asia, 

 India, Africa, Australia, and South America are so fully 

 settled that they will consume their own food-crops we need 

 not expect to see a rise in the price of staples. No amount 

 of bait thrown out to European nations in the form of low 

 tariffs is going to persuade them to take our corn and wheat 

 at high prices when they can get Russian and Indian prod- 

 ucts at low prices. 



Now if this be a true diagnosis of present conditions, what 

 can the farmer do to be saved from being ground to powder 

 between the upper and nether millstones; between a system 

 of taxation, on the one hand, which leaves the great accu- 

 mulations of wealth relatively untouched, and rests chiefly 

 on agriculture, and a world-economic movement, on the 

 other, which is knocking the bottom out of all staple prod- 

 ucts? My answer to this question, as far as the tirst point is 

 concerned, is to reform your system of taxation; as to the 

 second, make yourselves independent of the staples. Let us 

 try to discover and utilize new products. We can no longer 

 rely upon the old crops to keep us alive. We must discover 

 new branches of agriculture. Perhaps it will be found, as 

 in Germany, in the discovery of a sugar plant, or in the 

 cultivation of tea or coffee, or a new textile plant, or some- 

 thing else. Now from what source have we to look for the 

 introduction of such a plant or plants? Who can bear the 

 initial expense of ascertaining by a long series of costly ex- 

 periments what kind of soil and climate are best fitted to 

 each new crop. Manifestly only the government. Hence 

 the absolute necessity of the government experiment station, 

 planted in every State, and endowed on such a scale as will 

 enable it to make the most costly and long-continued experi- 

 ments upon every new crop which seems to promise any 

 hope of naturalization. We have been naturalizing men 

 long enough. Let us now try systematic plans to naturalize 

 every useful plant which is to be found in any other coun- 

 try. The federal government has begun this work on a 

 fairly liberal scale. It should be your business as farmei-s 

 to see that these appropriations shall be made on a still 

 larger scale than ever, aud that in each district in the State 

 a careful examination of soil and climate by scientific ex- 

 perts shall be made, with a view of determining what new 

 crops can be introduced into such places. In this way you 

 will find that the introduction of a new crop will go a long 

 way toward solving the taxation and all other problems, 

 since it will introduce prosperity where adversity now pre- 

 vails — an expanding agriculture instead of a declining one, 

 etc. 



Perhaps a word might not be out of place at this point as 



